Configuring 5.1 audio for gaming from HTPC

[Demitre]

I have a GA-EP35-DS3P with SPDIF optical output am using to connect to Marantz 4001 receiver.

I've been able to configure the video/audio playback portion of the HTPC to recognize digital sound when it plays(dts in dvds, x264 etc).

But when I play games, the output is still stereo, where would the setting for this be? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

 

[LtPage1]

Have you checked the in-game options?

 

[Slick5150]

Does your sound card do Dolby Digital Live encoding? If not, that you can't get 5.1 sound in games via a digital connection. Dolby Digital Live encodes the 5.1 audio from games into a digital stream in real time and outputs it to your receiver where it can then be decoded.

So, you either need a DD Live capable sound card, or you have to connect to your receiver via analog cables.

 

[YOyoYOhowsDAjello]

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...=1940133&enterthread=y

I'll go look up if your integrated audio can be set up to do DDL

EDIT: It doesn't seem like it has that ability? (I didn't see it going to the product page)

I was going to download the manual and look, but I was getting extremely crappy DL rates. Can you look in the audio section of your manual and see if it makes any mention of the ability to encode DD or DTS?

 

[Demitre]

I don't know, I am not using a sound card, just the motherboard's sound. I believe it has Azalia and Realtek ALC889A codec??

I am not sure Azalia supports Dobly Digital Live, google is not helping much atm.

Ltpage1- I only have one game to test right now, Crysis, and it's audio settings aren't plentiful.

 

[Mutilator]

I ran into this last week with my new home theater setup... basically the PC sends the audio out 2 channel PCM (until you fire up a movie or something anyway...) so I'm currently letting the receiver do the PLII Game stuff to it. Analog just sounds like crap compared to this.

I might consider a Dolby Digital Live card in the future... but I don't really need it right now. It is kinda weird hearing things from across the map in TF2 and having a hard time placing them though.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Demitre
I don't know, I am not using a sound card, just the motherboard's sound. I believe it has Azalia and Realtek ALC889A codec??

I am not sure Azalia supports Dobly Digital Live, google is not helping much atm.

Ltpage1- I only have one game to test right now, Crysis, and it's audio settings aren't plentiful.

Yeah, that doesn't do Dolby Live so there's simply no way to get 5.1 audio from a game over digital. Your choices are to either use analog hookups or get a DDL soundcard.

 

[Demitre]

Ok, I feared that, thanks for the answer and help everyone.

 

[Oyeve]

BTW, analog 5.1 in games usually sounds better that DD decoding. No compression. My opinion.

 

[Demitre]

I have a new concern. I can't get games and any media player to play sound at the same time. Only the first one I open will have sound. I believe this is because I have "allow exclusive control" on; but it is the only want to get dpsif to output digital sound.

 

[PurdueRy]

Originally posted by: Demitre
I have a new concern. I can't get games and any media player to play sound at the same time. Only the first one I open will have sound. I believe this is because I have "allow exclusive control" on; but it is the only want to get dpsif to output digital sound.

Can you explain what you are trying to say there a bit better?

 

[Slick5150]

I think the problem you're trying to get across is that if you are playing a game AND using media player only one will get heard and not the other? It sounds like you have the media player set to "Direct S/PDIF output" (or something along those lines), which means that its just taking the audio and directly spitting it out the digital out without it being processed by your sound card at all. This would mean that the rest of the audio that your soundcard IS processing wouldn't be able to access the digital output. And likely vice versa, if the processed sound is already playing and your media player tried to directly output via S/PDIF it would get denied.

So, just tell your media player not to do direct S/PDIF output and it should solve that, because then everything would be getting mixed by the soundcard and sent out.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your problem, which is certainly possible.

 

[Twsmit]

Originally posted by: Slick5150


So, just tell your media player not to do direct S/PDIF output and it should solve that, because then everything would be getting mixed by the soundcard and sent out.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your problem, which is certainly possible.

Would not make a difference. Digital output on a regular soundcard is going to be limited to stereo for games/music/DVDs/Blu-ray etc....

With digital the OP needs passthrough to get 5.1 surround in DVDs and other DTS/DD encoded media, but will have no choice but using a DD Live sound card or analog if he wants surround in realtime applications such as games.

The only other option the OP could use would be setting his receiver to Dolby Pro Logic surround. That will allow for virtual surround that is extrapolated from the regular stereo input. If the OP is a casual gamer that might be a good (and free) option.

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: Twsmit

Originally posted by: Slick5150


So, just tell your media player not to do direct S/PDIF output and it should solve that, because then everything would be getting mixed by the soundcard and sent out.

Unless I'm misunderstanding your problem, which is certainly possible.

Would not make a difference. Digital output on a regular soundcard is going to be limited to stereo for games/music/DVDs/Blu-ray etc....

With digital the OP needs passthrough to get 5.1 surround in DVDs and other DTS/DD encoded media, but will have no choice but using a DD Live sound card or analog if he wants surround in realtime applications such as games.

The only other option the OP could use would be setting his receiver to Dolby Pro Logic surround. That will allow for virtual surround that is extrapolated from the regular stereo input. If the OP is a casual gamer that might be a good (and free) option.

Ah, I was assuming that the OP had replaced their sound card with a DDL one, but I am likely assuming wrong.

 

[Twsmit]

Yah if he had a DD live card all would be well, but using coax/optical out with his onboard card, stereo is the best he can do for games.